This was my second year at The Sunday Times Festival of Education at Wellington College, which David Willets described as ‘the Hay-on-Wye of education’. This perhaps goes some way to explaining why I feel so uncomfortable at both, surrounded a horde of the self-identified cultural and educational elite of Britain. But aside from the terrible […]

I can finally officially announce the launch of invent-ed.com our new program that aims to putting teachers at the heart of edtech. invent-ed.com is a partnership between MediaTaylor and Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR). Mark Dawe, OCR’s Chief Executive, explains why their involvement ‘Education is about more than just exams, and improving education for […]

In January I had a chat with Gary Flake CEO at Clipboard, a company then being touted as an exciting edtech start-up – TechCruch described them ‘as a cross between Evernote and Pinterest’. It was an interesting conversation, but I didn’t write anything the time because I didn’t get any clear indication about: How Clipboard […]

I constantly hear/read about how schools in the UK must aspire to be like those in Singapore or Finland who do so well on the PISA and TIMSS/PIRLS tests. Yes, I’m sure there are things they can learn, but what infuriates me is a paucity of other examples of educational excellence that might be just […]

Parents in England worry about school league tables almost as much as teachers do. League tables are a the bogey man of education, but what should concern parents much more, is the quality of teachers and departments within schools. For example, according to the OECD the UK’s education system has the highest level of variation […]

Over the last 25 years, while setting up and investing in education companies, I have visited lots of schools around the world. This doesn’t make me an expert or an educationalist, simply an interested outsider. I often describe myself as ‘the least educated person working in the education market’ or as someone else said, ‘He […]

In spite of the Harry Potter effect only 7% of children in England attend private schools a rather modest number compared to almost 40% of their antipodean counterparts. I have been thinking upon private schools a lot since an interesting meeting with the senior management team at a high profile Australian private school to discuss […]

Elite Australian private schools face a couple of problems similar to those facing elite US universities – high fees and how to cope with excess demand. Supply of places in elite Australian private schools is very limited and so parents have to pay to join waiting lists. In most markets a supply side gap normally […]

In the last few years both incubators and accelerators have grown in the tech scene almost like viruses. From the well-known ones like ycombinator, 500 Startups, TechStars and SeedCamp, to newer players like Wayra, Angel Pad and Springboard, the list seems to grow daily. I have been involved with a couple as a mentor and […]

Politicians with an eye to the media cycle frequently tout their latest initiative as a ‘revolution’, but often the most substantive transformation is a lot less money in taxpayers’ wallets. In 2008, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard (then Minister for Education), having launched the $16bn (£10.5bn) Building the Education Revolution (BER) followed this with the […]